The next day was Grandma's holiday party. Jacob sat quietly the whole car ride to Grandma's house. He reluctantly got out of the car when he had to. He went to the table and helped himself to a nice amount of food. After eating his share, he looked around and noticed that these cousins also travel in groups. There was a group of girls gathered around playing with some toys. Jacob approached them first. As soon as they saw him coming, they all covered their hair with their hands. One girl started crying. Aunt Susie came over and yelled at Jacob. "Don't ever go near Rita's hair," she scolded.

Jacob approached a group of younger boys. They were busy building with a lego set. As soon as they saw him, one boy said, "You can't touch any of the legos. We're using all of them."

The older boys were sitting near the adults. Jacob sat down on his mother's lap.

"It's a shame Jacob couldn't stay in school for the holidays," Grandma said.

"He could have," Mrs. Frank said. "I wanted him home."

"You're so foolish," Grandma said. "Now you and David have to go without sleep for a while."

"He's sleeping fine," Mrs. Frank said. "He takes a sleeping medicine every night."

"Yes, but you can't relax with Jacob around," Grandma said. "You should look into institutions for him. He will never be anything anyways. He will never get a job, never get married, and never do anything positive. As he gets older, he will get more difficult."

"Actually," Mrs. Frank said calmly, "I'm busy looking for an institution for you. You will never be anything. You haven't worked in years, you were widowed for so long with no chance of getting married again since you're so selfish, and you never say anything positive. As you get older, you get more difficult."

"At least I could talk. Jacob will never talk," Grandma insisted.

Jacob took out his mirror. "Of course, I could talk," he said.

"That's not you talking. It's that device. You will never learn to talk if you rely on the device," Grandma said.

"Can we leave now?" Jacob asked fighting back tears.

"Yes, let's go," Mrs. Frank said.

Jacob tried to calm himself as the car turned away from Privet Drive, but he couldn't. As they headed out of Surrey towards London, Mrs. Frank said, "I think we may need to take Jacob to The Leaky Caldron."

Mr. Frank parked in front of the store, and the three of them walked in. Mrs. Frank ran to Tom.

"I'm sorry to bother you again," she said, "But my son is in danger of losing control of his magic. My mother-in-law was insulting him for a while, and he's going to explode. I don't think my house can handle the explosion."

Tom led them to an empty room. A ball of fire immediately appeared and disappeared. Professor Dumbledore ran into The Leaky Caldron.

"Excuse me, Tom," Professor Dumbledore said, "But I believe a boy named Jacob Frank just set your place on fire."

"His grandmother was insulting him," Tom explained. "He needed to explode and needed a safe place."

Professor Dumbledore approached Mr. and Mrs. Frank. "What happened?" he asked.

"My mother-in-law was insulting him," Mrs. Frank said.

"I heard about her tendency to that," Professor Dumbledore said. "Where does she live?"

"Little Whinging, Surrey," Mr. Frank told him.

"Interesting," Professor Dumbledore said. "There is another student in the school, who lives there, on Privet Drive, but his family isn't magical and they are not very nice to him."

"It seems that on Privet Drive, there is an emphasis on being like everyone else over there," Mrs. Frank complained. "My mother-in-law was never nice to Jacob."

"Maybe you shouldn't visit her anymore," Professor Dumbledore suggested.

"I've been saying that for the last nine years," complained Mrs. Frank.

The Franks agreed not to bring Jacob to his grandma anymore.

The rest of the holiday passed quickly with Jacob finding things to do at home. He was excited to board the Hogwarts Express and go back to school. He tried to behave himself for the whole train ride.

Jacob quickly got back into his routine, taking classes with his year and fourth year Gryffindors. He continued drumming every night and managed not to set Professor Lockhart on fire. He heard about attacks in school but wasn't very concerned. One night, as he was drumming, a bunch of angry Ravenclaws approached him.

"How can you drum at a time like this?" one of them yelled.

"What's the problem?" Jacob asked.

"Didn't you hear about Penelope?" someone asked him.

"Maybe the drumming will wake her up," suggested Jacob.

"No it won't," Terry yelled at him. "Now stop."

"She's going to be fine," Jacob said. "As soon as the mandrakes are ready, she'll be better."

"Don't you care that Professor Dumbledore isn't at the school anymore?" someone asked.

"He'll be back," Jacob said confidently. "When there's another attack the governors will ask him back."

"You want there to be another attack?" Jacob was asked.

"No, and maybe there won't be," said Jacob.

"Don't you care about anything?" Terry asked.

"I care that I want to play my drums now and nobody is letting me," Jacob said. "When you feel stress, you need to let it out, and Professor Dumbledore said I'm not allowed to set people on fire anymore."

Jacob got used to the change in routines quickly. Students were walked to classes by professors and there were no outside activities. Jacob didn't care as he never bothered going to a Quiddich game anyway. Professor Lockhart was being his usual obnoxious self.

"All these precautions are silly," he said. "Hagrid's locked up. The monster is under control."

Jacob flicked his wand and watched as Professor Lockhart was bound in ropes.

"No Professor Dumbledore to save you now," Jacob said with a grin.

"Class dismissed," Professor Lockhart. "Release me please."